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No reason to celebrate but many grounds to rue over Transparency International 2012 Corruption Perception Index which ranked Malaysia 54th as compared to 60th last year as least corrupt country in the world

There is no reason to celebrate but many grounds to rue over Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2012 which ranked Malaysia 54th as compared to 60th last year as least corrupt country in the world.

The total number of countries assessed in the TI CPI 2012 have been reduced from 183 countries last year to 176 countries this year and TI has used a new methodology, declaring that country scores of the CPI 2012 cannot be compared against those of 2011 or previous editions.Year to year comparisons will be possible from 2012 as the baseline year for subsequent years.

Under the new methodology, the the CPI score will be on a scale of 0-100 where a 0=highest level of perceived corruption and 100 = lowest level of perceived corruption as compared to the previous CPI score from 0 to 10.

Although Malaysia’s 2012 TI CPI score of 49 out of 100 cannot be compared with the past TI CPI scores of the past 17 years from 1995 to 2011, one inescapable fact is that Malaysia has been fighting a losing battle against corruption in the past decades, which saw Malaysia’s TI CPI ranking falling to the lowest level of 60th place last year as compared to 23rd ranking in 1995, and the CPI score plunging to an unprecedented low of 4.3 last year as compared to the highest score of 5.32 achieved in 1996.
Continue reading “No reason to celebrate but many grounds to rue over Transparency International 2012 Corruption Perception Index which ranked Malaysia 54th as compared to 60th last year as least corrupt country in the world”

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Public spectacle of whipping penalty becomes circus for the masses

By CPI | 05 December 2012 11:39

CPI Introduction

The following below is an account of public flogging under an Islamic system in Pakistan. It is an eyewitness’s description which should provide pause for those who want to see Islamic norms prevail in our judicial system.

However, it should be noted that even under our present British-derived justice system, flogging or ‘judicial caning’ as it is sometimes kindly described, is also widely practiced in Malaysia though it is done in the privacy of the prison compound rather than in public as is the Islamic practice.

Although the number of judicial canings is not known, it is believed to run into the thousands and is especially inflicted on what are deemed to be serious offenders such as drugs traffickers and offenders of unnatural sex crimes, e.g. sodomy.
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From now on, it’s a Malay vs Malay contest

― Ooi Kee Beng
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 05, 2012

DEC 5 ― As Umno general assemblies go, the one held last week was rather tame in its rhetoric. It was certainly memorable for its lack of vitriolic language.

And it was expectedly so ― therein lies its significance.

Things were quite different back in the days before 2008, when ethnocentric exhortations were run of the mill, and Umno Youth was the amplifier of racial extremist voices. This year, showing party unity was the order of the day.

Much of the credit must go to the fact that Malaysia today has a surprisingly stable two-party system in place. As we know, such a competitive structure has a strong moderating effect on extremist voices, be they racial or religious. After all, gaining the middle ground is how electoral victories are won. Continue reading “From now on, it’s a Malay vs Malay contest”